NOTES ON A FEW OF OUR BIRDS. 389 



that we can easily imagine some guilty sojourner in our native wilds, 

 who hears it for the first time, starting from his slumbers, thinking that 

 the Philistines were upon him. 



In Williamson's " History of Maine " is given a list of our native 

 birds, or what purport to be so, and there a very strange mistake is made 

 in his description of the kingfisher. He says, " It is heavy as a plover, 

 has a long bill, its head is crested with red, its back is of a blue 

 color." He also says that this bird is plentiful, but it is very evident 

 from his description that he never examined one, since the bird's entire 

 upper parts, including the head, are ashy blue. These birds excavate 

 in sand-banks a hole about six feet deep and three and a half inches 

 in diameter ; this hole is enlarged at the end, where, as Audubon, 

 Nuttall, Samuels, and other authors agree in saying, a nest, is built, 

 composed of grasses, leaves, feathers, and perhaps a few sticks, on 

 which the eggs are deposited. This, however, is not the case in central 

 Maine, for I have examined a great many of their burrows, with a view 

 to ascertaining the facts regarding the construction of their nests, and 

 in not a single instance has there been the slightest attempt at the for- 

 mation of a nest, but the eggs were laid on the bare sand, over which 

 in some cases fish-scales were scattered. I have spoken with many 

 persons in different parts of this State in regard to these facts, and 

 their observations have agreed with my own. Mr. H. D. Minot, in his 

 " Land and Game Birds of New England," says : " From the abun- 

 dant evidence recently offered on the subject of the nest, and from 

 my own limited experience, it may be gathered that it " (i. e., the bur- 

 row) " varies in length ; . . . that it may be either straight or have 

 a bend, and that it is rarely lined at the end, except with fish-bones, 

 as is sometimes the case." 



When all Nature is covered with her snowy mantle, and our feath- 

 ered friends have deserted us for more congenial climes, we may 

 still see the red-bellied nuthatch hopping about on our trees, peering 

 into crannies in search of food, and uttering their short and ceaseless 

 note ; but, as the weather grows milder, they gradually disappear, 

 going away to the north, where they breed. The author of " Land 

 and Game Birds of New England " notes that a nest was found in 

 Roxbury, in 18G6, but the instances recorded of its nest and eggs being- 

 found in New England are not common, and for this reason I trust the 

 description of a nest and eggs which I was so fortunate as to find may 

 be of interest. On the 23d day of May, 1877, while passing through 

 the woods on a collecting tour, I chanced to place my hand on an old 

 and very much decayed hemlock-stub, but no sooner had I touched it 

 than a red-bellied nuthatch popped out of a hole about six feet from 

 the ground, and, feeling sure of a prize, I proceeded to inspect her snug 

 quarters. The nest was placed in a cavity in the stub, which extended 

 downward about six inches below the entrance: at the bottom of this 

 hole was the nest proper, which was composed entirely of soft bark ; 



